The best (and worst) James Bond theme songs

Your pick of the secret agent's greatest hits

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Daniel Craig: license to sell mp3 downloads.

Introduction

James Bond is the only government-sanctioned assassin to have a string of pop singles associated with him.

Nobody quite remembers why this came to be - everybody was drinking a lot in the early ‘60s - but every since Shirley Bassey belted out Goldfinger, the Bond song has become as integral to the series as licences to kill, casual sex and very specifically mixed martinis.

To celebrate the release of Spectre, the latest instalment in the never-ending saga of Britain’s best-dressed badass, we ran a poll to find out which of the many, many Bond songs that have tickled the charts over the years is top of the pops.

So here they are, the best 22 Bond songs of all time, as voted for by MusicRadar’s readers...

21. Lulu - The Man With The Golden Gun

In the wake of Macca’s storming Live And Let Die, Lulu had a lot to live up to - and she largely fails, bless her.

A more traditional effort in the Bassey mould, it comes charging out with a really world-class double entendre (“He has a powerful weapon”), but for all its funky guitar work and descending horns, it never catches fire. A shadow of better Bond songs.

20. Shirley Bassey - Moonraker

Oh, it’s a classic opening, no doubt about that, and Moonraker sets a kind of blue note that works wonderfully on screen. Ultimately, it lacks the huge, irresistible hooks of Bassey’s very best, and pales in comparison. Functional rather than fantastic.

19. Sam Smith - Writing's On The Wall

The key problem with Writing’s On The Wall is that it is life-threateningly boring – yet it got to No 1 in the UK. Go figure.

A wildly over-the-top orchestral arrangement swamps the whole thing in melodrama, but it can’t hide fact that somebody forgot to write a song. The sad man’s high voice is fleetingly impressive from a purely technical perspective, but there’s nothing holding it up.

17. Madonna - Die Another Day

Madonna’s glitchy, dancefloor-orientated take on the Bond song is a marked departure from the rest. Yes, it’s full of patent nonsense (“Sigmund Freud, analyse this!”), but it’s catchy as all hell and bursting with ideas.

Not one for traditionalists, but a welcome change of pace from the same old formula.

14. Sheena Easton - For Your Eyes Only

A wash of synths announce Bond’s arrival in the '80s. A massive hit for Sheena Easton, as a piece of period pop-work, For Your Eyes Only stands up, but it’s somehow a little soft around the edges, not quite strident enough to be truly brilliant.

Nice, but not quite Bond.

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Quantum Of Solace, 2008

13. Jack White & Alicia Keys - Another Way To Die

The rough and tumble of The White Stripes meets the super-slick soul of Alicia Keys, and while the result isn’t entirely unlikable, it is deeply odd.

The chorus doesn’t hit hard enough and it’s structurally bizarre, like a rehearsal room jam that never got pared down into a great song. Brave, ambitious, but ultimately flawed – a bit like the film it accompanies.

11. Louis Armstrong - We Have All The Time In The World

Obviously, this is a great song, and all the better for not trying to call it ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’. It’s hard to believe it didn’t chart at the time - it took a Guinness advert two-and-a-half decades later for that.

The least memorable Bond (that’d be George Lazenby), bagged one of the most memorable Bond songs. There’s no justice.

10. Garbage - The World Is Not Enough

Slinking into life with those synonymous strings, stabbing horns and big old drums, The World Is Not Enough follows a well-established pattern.

It’s Garbage singer Shirley Manson that gives it a bit of edge, with disconcerting lyrics and a sinister delivery. Come to think of it, she’d make a great supervillain - get her a hollowed-out volcano, stat.

9. A-ha - The Living Daylights

In '87, Timothy Dalton stepped into the Bond tux and A-Ha took on the songwriting duties - a big year. Once again, the venerable John Barry collaborated with the band to produce the song, but it did not go well.

As a result, there are two different versions of the track out there - we prefer Barry’s original soundtrack arrangement. It’s all in the horns, man…

1. Paul McCartney & Wings - Live And Let Die

A Beatle finally met Bond, and boy, did Macca deliver. The piano part is pure chordal genius, albeit with some fairly dodgy lyrical grammar.

Crashing drums and heart-pounding strings give Live And Let Die more of a sense of danger than any other Bond song, and the cod reggae section is a baffling if unbelievably catchy diversion. Magnificent.

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